Flowers and Stitches
by koa-chan
Summary: Marie loves flowers. Sunflowers, to be exact. Stein, being an observer, knew that all too well. Marie knows that Stein understood. Though when he stitched up that sunflower pillow... / Stein/Marie


**A/N:** Again, this was lying around my computer. I picked it up and put it here. :D

Because we love Marie. We love Stein. And we love them and their little house.

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**Flowers and Stitches**

Marie loves flowers. Sunflowers, to be exact. Stein, being an observer, knew that all too well.

His house was black, white and gray. No color besides the occasional brown or crimson red. So when he was about to leave for school that one morning, it was easy to notice little colored blemishes on a corner of his abode.

He turned towards a light gray closet that he took out the attic lately and cleaned for decency, and caught sight of little pink and yellow and orange stickers.

He recognized the mini sunflower out of all those flowers.

It was just a little splash of color, and he didn't mind. It was Marie's closet anyway, and since they were staying together as partners, he had to respect her whims.

The next day, he caught a larger blot of yellow among the whites and grays.

He turned towards the closet again, noting the same stickers, and then the empty space beside the closet. There was a pink flower pot and in it a bright yellow sunflower was planted.

"Stein?" the blonde looked up at him, carrying some books with her. Marie caught her partner's gaze and smiled nervously. "I.. I hope it's okay for you... I just love sunflowers too much..."

"I don't mind." He replied, smiling reassuredly. "Just not used to bright colors, that's all."

"Really?" she grinned cheerfully. "Thank you Stein!"

"Aa."

A few days later, he walked inside the house, saying 'I'm home' as a newfound practice because he actually had someone to inform of his arrival who is supposedly in his house too, assuming from the opened lights and-

Wait.

Since when did he have a couch?

More specifically...

Since when did he have a bright purple couch?

Blinking repeatedly, he frowned. It was.. um, eyecatching. Eyecatching enough to get his attention first thing. After all, he has never seen anything as big and bright and purple as this couch before.

Marie appeared from the kitchen, smiling at him. "Welcome home! Dinner is almost done so-... Oh, you noticed the couch!"

Who wouldn't? Stein smiled. "Yeah, I did."

"Isn't it cute? There was this super sale in town so I did not hesitate because it was so cheap!"

"Oh."

"And I had a good exercise, bringing that thing here by myself!"

"...Oh?"

"So what do you think?"

"It's..." Stein glanced at the nearby closet, at the flower stickers, the sunflower pot and back at the purple couch and the sunflower throwpillow in it. "Cute."

Marie's smiled could have illuminated the whole of Death City.

It was fine with him, really. Stein got used to the splashes of color here and there, the stickers, the couch, the pillows, their tea sets, and fridge magnets.

Then there were the post-it notes in neon colors against his white bulletin board.

_'Good morning, Stein!'_

_'You were still sleeping. I left some foods in the fridge, just heat them up!'_

_'Hey, sleep early tonight!'_

The colors clashed against the black and white doodles and drafts beside his computer, and sometimes it hurt the eyes to see the neon shades, but he reads them anyway.

Spirit chuckled when he visited one time. Seeing odd girly stuff and flowers on a laboratory that was owned by the one and only Franken Stein was something new, and something that made him smile uncontrollably.

"Sempai. Why are you smiling like that?"

"Marie loves flowers this much?"

"Yes. Sunflowers to be exact. Fits her well, actually."

Because she was always like a bundle of sunshine amongst her circle of friends.

She likes sunflowers, whilst he liked stitches.

It was shown quite clearly, he knew. There were stitches in his face, his clothes, his walls, furniture, almost everything.

Stein loves stitches, and it didn't take an observer to notice that - that must be why Marie didn't take long to know it by heart and accept every single stitch in the walls, ceilings, tables, lab gowns, and everything.

So she didn't have a problem when her sunflower throwpillow had some gray stitches.

Although she became a bit curious...

"Stein, what happened to my pillow?"

And it was almost funny how.. sheepish he looked while explaining over at dinner.

"I.. was a bit bored yesterday. The polar bear that was supposed to be delivered here for dissection didn't arrive. So I thought I'd stitch some things up." Then he looked over inquisitively at her. "Is that fine with you?"

It somewhat startled her that he even asked. Nevertheless, she still smiled back. "Of course! I think it looked cuter that way anyway!"

She had fully accepted the fact that the reason why his whole house had stitches were 1)he was bored, 2)he loved stitching so much and 3)he was just really bored.

And he'll victimize the first thing he sees.

It amused Marie to imagine Stein sitting on the purple couch and sewing on a bright yellow pillow. And when she giggled at that, she felt his gaze linger on her for a moment, before he returned to his meal. It was actually a good thing that he was eating- Wait. Maybe that was WHY he was willingly eating? Stein was kinda guilty of stitching her favorite pillow.

That was why he didn't need to be threatened of pulverization today just to eat his dinner, neh?

Nevertheless, Stein went on eating timidly.

Well, he told her the truth - he's bored. But he knew full well that the polar bear was not scheduled to come till the end of the month, and that he simply was bored and he went paranoid when he noticed that YES, his house is so brightly-colored now.

"Next time call me up and maybe I'd help you with it!" she volunteered.

He didn't know what to say. "Uh, okay."

A few minutes of silence and he spoke up again.

Just to inform her in advance.

"I think I'll be stitching the bed sheets next."

She just laughed.

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**.FIN.**

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**A/N: **Alright. Well.. Review? ^^


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